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February 02, 2006
The Future of the Course (cont'd)
It turns out that what I was predicting in an earlier posting is already happening. The University of Michigan Dental School is using Apple's iTunesU interface to provide all of their course content via the iTunes interface.
How is this changing the educational experience at this particular dental school? Lynn Johnson, Associate Professor of Dentistry says on the Apple website: Being physically present in the classroom is the starting point, the foundation. Listening to the lectures on the iPod allows students to build on that foundation.
After attending class (or instead of attending class) students can pop in their ear buds and revisit everything that happened during the day's lectures and discussions. Because these are essentially podcasts created in real time, as opposed to in a studio somewhere, they also capture the question and answer between students and faculty.
But, you say. This means students don't have to go to class any more! This would fall into the category of old news.
When I lived in Texas back in the late 1990s a good friend of mine was a medical student. I was shocked to find out that after their first semester, most of the medical students stopped going to class. Instead, a small group attended class, took notes, and then sold their notes to the rest of the students who stayed home and worked together in study groups. Those who took the best notes commanded the highest prices. While this system created a real class structure--poorer students attending class, wealthier students staying home and buying their notes--all of these students still had to take the same medical exams at the end of their course work.
The iTunesU model will put the note takers out of work, because all the lectures would be available for free, but the learning model is very similar. The obvious exceptions are that students can take their learning on the road (or sidewalk or treadmill or wherever) and that they can listen and watch the lectures now instead of just reading someone else's interpretation of those lectures.
There are skeptics (see especially the comments to the linked blog post), just as there should be. Whenever the corporate profit motive and the educational mission connect, questions should be raised. But from this discussion will come some interesting solutions I suspect.
For now, the iTunesization of education is well under way.
Posted by mills at February 2, 2006 12:39 PM